University Challenge - History

History

The programme had its beginnings in an American television quiz show called College Bowl. Cecil Bernstein, brother of Sidney Bernstein who founded Granada Television in 1954, had seen the programme in the United States and liked the format. It was decided that Granada would produce a similar programme with competing teams from universities across the United Kingdom. From its inception in 1962, University Challenge was hosted by Bamber Gascoigne. The show was a cult favourite with a small but loyal core audience, and was one of a select few ITV shows which were transmitted without any advertising breaks. This meant that the show was relegated to irregular timeslots by the various ITV regional companies, such as Sunday afternoons, weekday mornings, weekday afternoons and, in some regions, late at night.

In the absence of a regular networked slot, audience figures would often fall, leading the producers to make changes to the long-standing format of the programme. For example, in the 1985 season, initial games were staged over two legs; the first in the classic format and the second played as a relay, where contestants selected questions from specific categories such as sport, literature and science, passing a baton between players whenever a "lap" of two correct answers was scored.

This added complexity did little to halt declining viewer figures, and after ITV regions started to drop the programme altogether (the final season was not screened at all by LWT) it was taken off the air in 1987. It was eventually revived in 1994 by the BBC, although still produced by Granada Television, using the original format with minor differences and presented by Jeremy Paxman.

During the show's hiatus, a special edition of the show was made, not by Granada but by BBC Television, as part of a themed evening of programmes dedicated to Granada Television. It was presented by Bamber Gascoigne, and screened on BBC2 on 28 December 1992. The teams included one made up of students from Keble College, Oxford, which had fielded the winning team in the final 1987 season; and a graduates team made up of celebrity alumni who had previously starred on the programme as students, including journalist John Simpson and actor Stephen Fry. This show was preceded by a short documentary about the show's history. Bamber Gascoigne's final appearance as host was in Universe Challenge in 1998 (see below).

The original announcer was Don Murray-Henderson, who was with the programme until his death in 1971. Jim Pope took over and stayed with the programme until his death in 2001. Since then, the announcer has been voiceover and broadcaster Roger Tilling. The theme tune is called "College Boy" and was composed by Derek New. The original, jauntier version from the Bamber Gascoigne era is no longer used, and has been replaced by a version recorded by The Balanescu Quartet.